Participant of the CRA-W Distributed Mentor Project

Summer of 2002

CRA-W stands for
Computing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in
Computing Research.
The
CRA Distributed Mentor Project
aims to encourage female computer science undergraduates to continue
on to graduate school, by giving them a taste of the graduate school
life. For the summer of 2002, 35 students from around the country
were chosen to participate. The participants are sent to various
schools to work under the guidance of a female computer science
professional. The DMP
is funded in part by the
National Science Foundation.

I (Kris Hauman) had been building up excitement for months before the
summer of 2002 began. I couldn't wait to implement my plans to hike
with my husband on the
Appalachian Trail
all summer long.

Then one day in late January my plans changed. We were sitting in the
computer lab on the third floor of Stillwell, the part of campus
that's home to
Western Carolina University
computer science majors. One of our best professors, Mark Holliday,
walked in and handed me some literature about the CRA-W accepting
applications for the mentor project.

All I heard him say was that it
was something for the summer, and since I already had great summer
plans, I almost didn't read it. Yet after looking at the brochure, and
realizing what a great opportunity it was, I decided to apply. I can
hike another time, but when would I get another chance to be paid to
learn with female computer science professionals at a graduate school
in an unfamiliar place?

All my excitement for the summer was shifted to the idea of being
accepted as a mentee. One month after applying, I got an email from
the project's coordinator, Nancy Amato, congratulating me for being
accepted. My mentor is
Professor Lori Clarke
at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Since the only state I've ever lived in besides North Carolina is
South Carolina, I was thrilled to be going to New England. I was also
looking forward to being around female computer scientists, since WCU
has zero female CS teachers and almost no female CS majors.

Lori Clarke is a distinguished member of the Software Engineering
community. Her research interests include analysis of concurrent
software, object management, and software architecture. She is
co-director of the Laboratory for Advanced Software Engineering Research
(LASER).
LASER is where I will fulfill my mentee duties, under the guidance of
programmer/researcher
Heather Conboy.
My summer project pertains to Flow Analysis for Verification of Systems
(FLAVERS),
a LASER creation.